The art of living
The Art of Living
Somehow ‘the art of…’ are titles I enjoy a lot lately. Probably because I feel we need more art and less anything else somehow in our lives. Therefore the art of living, the art of cooking, the art of not caring and so on.
How did I come up with this title you might ask yourself. Well, most of us do more survived than consciously live IMHO. There is that busy schedule, work work work and not much fun apart from that. It is merely surviving but not consciously living - the lifestyle that most of us have. It is not a good lifestyle, it is not satisfying and not bringing much joy and happiness.
The art of being an employee
I feel a bit stressed lately as well because being a part-time employee again is not my thing for being honest. I have been a freelancer for the past few years and then working as an employee again feels not so good - but that is what I have to do for now, for a few months until I make good money again as a freelancer. I am honest here, it is tough for me and I can’s say that it brings me much joy and happiness since it feels like a big step back in my career.
The art of doing the work I want to have
But that is the way it is, I will continue this kind of work as long as I have enough money again to further invest in learning new skills combined with coaching and then I will start my new freelance work project. I have always been happy with teaching Merck expats, the only downside is that I am so dependent on the time of other people to earn money which creates lots of stress and uncertainty and that is what I want to get away from. I have to find a way to make a steady good high-paying income by myself without this kind of time-dependency and without having to work as a part-time employee. My goal is to get away from getting paid by the hour since it is not sustainable and it always results in being underpaid and being overworked. No more of that please. It also resulted in that I almost never went on vacation since this meant not earning any money…stressful and not ideal!
Living and not just working
It is sad how most people are stuck in jobs they hate so they barely live and only survive day by day, weekend to weekend and so on. It is sad how most jobs create a very unsatisfying and unhealthy work environment where the individual doing the work is not appreciated and only exploited. I had jobs like that and it felt awful. Thankfully my Merck teaching job is nothing like this, the work itself I enjoy but the uncertainty of work and only making money by being paid by the hour is the problem. Years ago I already realized that I have to change something but I did not have the energy to start something new because I worked a lot and did not really get anything done besides work. Same story for most poeple I guess! Now I feel drained as well but since my financial and job situation got so much worse last year, I had to figure out an alternative to earning money. The transformation is painful and I am right into it. It will take some time to get where I want to be but will stick with it and do whatever it takes. Of course it is exhausting to work two jobs now but I will see to reduce the hours in the part-time job, get more teaching hours, save money and then focus on learning new skills in order to start my own thing. And I promise myself not to give up until I am where I want to be. Amen to that!
So have I figured out the art of living? I’d say on certain days more than on other days but in the past 2 weeks certainly not. I was just overworked and stressed. I am glad that my financial situation is better now than all the months before but it is not nearly as good as it was before or as good as it is supposed to be. Am I super focused on money? No, I am not but money buys freedom and free time and that is exactly what I want from life. Freedom. Freedom is the highest good and the easiest way to achieve freedom is through having money. Do I need a luxury car or designer clothes and handbags? No, not at all - but I wanna be able to have the money go buy good healthy organic food, to work on my own terms and conditions and to take time off in the form of vacations - something that rarely happened in the past few years.
I have to focus hard on shifting my mindset from one of scarcity to one of abundance and from that life is so tough most of the time that life can be easygoing and fun most of the time. I think with the right mindset shift the true miracles will start to happen. This is not some kind of woowoo because I don’t do any of that spiritual stuff but I believe we receive in life the things we subconsciously believe in so we have to reprogram our subconscious mind in order to create the things we want from life.
I will end this text now with my conclusion; do I believe things will get better? Yes, I do but I have to put work and effort into it. Do I believe I deserve to live a better life than the one I have lived so far? Yes, I certainly do. I feel like I have hit rock-bottom once again and it was painful but after hitting rock-bottom it is the time to change things for the better. It will take time but it is going to happen. Hopefully one year from now I am doing the work I want to do, earning good money with it while I am living on a Mediterranean island since I can’t stand living in Germany anymore. It is a no-brainer to stay here but that will be the topic of another article.
Start the art of living, start turning your dreams into reality and believe that you deserve better better and the best and that you can become the best version of yourself.
Thanks for taking the time to read, I really aprreciate it and feel free to share your thoughts with me.
Love,
Phyllis